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Exposure to parental smoking increases risk of respiratory symptoms in children

For more than three decades, researchers have warned of the potential health risks associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), especially among children whose parents smoke. Now a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona reports that those health risks persist well beyond childhood, independent of whether or not those individuals end up becoming smokers later in life.

21 May 2012

Review examines benefits and harms of LDCT screening for lung cancer

Peter B. Bach, M.D., of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to examine the evidence regarding the benefits and harms of low-dose computerized tomography (LDCT) screening for lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death. "Most patients are diagnosed with advanced disease, resulting in a very low 5-year survival rate," the authors write.

21 May 2012

Specific risk factors linked with exacerbation-prone phenotype of severe asthma

A number of specific risk factors are associated with an exacerbation-prone phenotype of severe asthma, according to a new study from researchers in Sweden.

21 May 2012

Sleep-disordered breathing may increase risk of cancer mortality

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), commonly known as sleep apnea, is associated with an increased risk of cancer mortality, according to a new study.

21 May 2012

Blogs address food security, African agriculture in anticipation of high-level meetings in Washington

Several blogs recently have published posts in anticipation of a symposium on food security taking place in Washington on Friday, at which President Barack Obama is expected to speak, and the G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland on Friday and Saturday, both of which will focus on food security and agriculture in Africa.

19 May 2012

Loss of U.S. funding for UNFPA 'would be devastating' to family planning services in developing countries

"By voting to ban any U.S. contribution to UNFPA" in the FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday "made a judgment call that saving the lives of women and girls around the world is simply not a U.S. priority," Valerie DeFillipo, president of Friends of UNFPA, writes in a Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece.

19 May 2012

Specialized high volume centers linked with lower rates of death and disability from aSAH

People with bleeding brain aneurysms have the best chance of survival and full recovery if they receive aggressive emergency treatment from a specialized team at a hospital that treats a large number of patients like them every year, according to new guidelines just published by the American Stroke Association.

19 May 2012

The Millennium Village Project: a correction

Paul Pronyk, lead author of the Millennium Village paper, releases the following statement about the paper, Pronyk PM, Muniz M, Nemser B, et al, for the Millennium Villages Study Group. The effect of an integrated multisector model for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving child survival in rural sub-Saharan Africa: a non-randomised controlled assessment. Lancet 2012; published online May 8. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60207-4.

18 May 2012

Promising updates in quest for early detection and treatments for lung cancer

LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's largest lung cancer-focused nonprofit, is pleased to note promising updates in researchers' quest for early detection and treatments for lung cancer during May, Lung Cancer Hope Month.

18 May 2012

Surgical community kicksoff Strong for Surgery initiative

Washington State's surgical community announces today the kickoff of the Strong for Surgery initiative. Strong for Surgery's goal is to educate the healthcare community on effective steps that can be taken to better prepare patients for surgery and provide the best outcomes possible. The initiative is led by the University of Washington's CERTAIN program and is working in partnership with the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP).

18 May 2012

PLoS blog responds to U.N.'s newly released maternal mortality estimates

Newly released "estimates of maternal mortality from the United Nations' Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) are good news – but not good enough," Peter Byass, professor of global health at Umea University in Sweden and director of the Umea Centre for Global Health Research, writes in this post in the PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog.

18 May 2012

Medtronic announces new results from CoreValve ADVANCE Study

Medtronic, Inc. today announced new results from the Medtronic CoreValve ADVANCE Study, which found that women and men benefitted similarly from the Medtronic CoreValve System.

From Medtronic 18 May 2012

Maternal deaths drop by nearly half worldwide over 20 years; Greater progress still needed, U.N. reports

"The number of women dying of pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications has almost halved in 20 years, according to new estimates released [on Wednesday] by the United Nations, which stressed that greater progress is still needed in significantly reducing maternal deaths," the U.N. News Centre reports.

18 May 2012

Patients with morbid obesity more likely to develop complications after spinal fusion surgery

Patients with morbid obesity are at nearly twice the risk of developing complications after spinal fusion surgery, reports a study in the May 15 issue of Spine.

18 May 2012

$Age alone is not a contraindication to surgical fixation of C2 fractures$

Age alone is not a contraindication to surgical fixation of C2 fractures

For older adults with "C2" fractures of the upper (cervical) spine, surgery and nonsurgical treatment provide similar short- and long-term outcomes, reports a study in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

17 May 2012

Insecticide resistance threatens malaria control efforts, WHO warns

"Malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa and India are becoming resistant to insecticides, putting millions of lives at greater risk and threatening eradication efforts, health experts said on Tuesday," Reuters report.

17 May 2012

Marathon runners less likely to die during or soon after the race

Even though hundreds of thousands more people finished grueling 26.2 mile marathons in the United States in 2009 compared to a decade earlier, a runner's risk of dying during or soon after the race has remained very low — about .75 per 100,000, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. Men, however, were twice as likely to die as women.

17 May 2012

MDG Health Alliance introduced at GBCHealth Conference

The MDG Health Alliance, an innovative new private sector organization created and led by eminent business leaders to tackle urgent global health problems, was introduced today in the United States at the GBCHealth Conference.

17 May 2012

WHO releases World Health Statistics 2012 with first-time data on blood pressure, diabetes

The WHO on Wednesday released its World Health Statistics 2012 report, which "for the first time includes a look at blood pressure and glucose levels, two of the risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease," according to the Associated Press/Washington Post.

17 May 2012

U.S. HIV assistance through PEPFAR prevented 740,000 deaths between 2004-2008, study shows

"The lives of more than 740,000 people in nine African countries were saved between 2004 and 2008 by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief [PEPFAR]," according to a study conducted by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Wednesday, HealthDay News reports.

17 May 2012